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P. 0. MAT'THIESSEN. Centrifugal Apparatus for Liquoring Hard Sugar.

N 225,939 Patented Mr. 30. I880.

ILPETEI'B, PHDWUTHOGRAPHER, WASHNGTOM NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANZ O. MATTHIESSEN, OF IRVINGTON, NEW YORK.

CENTRIFUGAL APPARATUS FOR LIQUQRING HARD SUGAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 225,939, dated March 30, 1880.

Application filed May 29, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRANZ O. MATTHIES- SEN, of Irvington, New York, have invented certain Improvements in Centrifugal Apparatus for Liquoring Hard Sugar, of which the following is a specification.

My improvements relate to that class of apparatus for liquoriug hard sugar in the centrifugal machine in which there is provided for each sugar-mold a movable box for receiving the white liquor from areservoir centrally mounted upon the machine. The movable boxes are arranged in a circle immediately within the circle of molds, and mechanism is provided for thrusting the boxes radially outward against the inner ends of the molds. The outer edges of the boxes are provided with rubber gaskets, which are compressed when the boxes are thrust outward, and thus make a tight joint between the boxes and the mold, so that all the white liquor received into the boxes from the central reservoir is discharged into and through the sugar contained in the molds with which the boxes are respectively in contact.

My invention consists in substituting for the boxes heretofore employed, and for the mechanism for operating them, boxes which are loosely supported upon the floor of the basket, and are respectively contained between vertical guide-walls, so that by the effect of centrifugal force, when the machine is rotated, the boxes are thrown radially outward and held firmly against the inner ends of the sugar-molds, with which they are respectively brought into contact.

I employ the usual central reservoir, provided with a spent for each box, and do not introduce the white liquor into the reservoir until after the centrifugal machine has acquired such speed of rotation as to throw all the boxes outward, and thus firmly pack all the joints between the boxes and the molds.

. In the accompanying drawings, representing a centrifugal machine embodying my improvements, Figure 1 is a top view with a portion of the central reservoir broken away for the purpose of exhibiting one of the boxes tipped backward in the position which it 00- copies when the machine is stationary. Fig.

2 is a central vertical section of the machine through the line a; no on Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an isometrical perspective of one of the boxes removed from the machine.

The drawings represent the usual basket, A, of a centrigual machine, mounted upon the vertical shaft B. The basketis provided with the usual vertical division walls, a, which separate the sugar-molds G from each other. Other division-walls, a, are erected between the boxes, and the sides of the walls a form the vertical bearings or guides for the liquorboxes D. i

It will be seen that the sides of the vertical walls a are convergent, like the sides of the sugar-molds C; but the sides of the walls a are respectively parallel with a radial line bisectin g the center of the liquor-box with which they are in contact.

The liquor-boxes have side walls, dd, which are parallel for a portion of their width, and then flare outwardly in order to make the distance between their outer edges equal to the distance between the side walls of the sugarmold at its inner end. The bottom d of each box is inclined or chamfered toward its front edge, d

When the machine is stationary the box, in consequence of being supported only upon its front edge, 0?, tends to fall back from the sugar-mold by its own gravity. Its backward movementis arrested by the transverse stop E, which may either be a bar support-ed near the upper end of the Walls a or may be a bearingplace formed in the periphery of the huh 1), extending upward from and afiixed to the bottom of the basket.

The floor of the basket is slightly raised for the support of the sugar-molds, and the edge 0 of the raised part of the floor forms a vertical bearing-placefor the lower front edge, d of the liquor-box D when the latter is tipped back.

It will be seen that the lower plate, 0, of the sugar-mold projects slightly over the edge e of the raised floor, so that when the box is thrown outward against the mold the lower edge, d of the box 1s withdrawn from contact with the edge e of the raised part of the floor, and opportunity is thus afforded for a sufficient bodily outward movement of the box to permit the compression of the elastic gasket between the outer edges of the box and the inner edges of the sugar-mold.

When the boxDis tipped back it is intended that the packing-strip carried in the lower edge, d of the box shall be rocked backward out of contact with the edge of the lower plate, 0, of the mold, so that sufficient clearance may be provided for the withdrawal of the sugarmold from the basket and the introduction of another sugar-mold in its place.

It will thus be seen that the effect of centrifugal force is to throw the box bodily outwardand tightly compress the elastic gasket or packin gstrip against the inner edges of the sugarmold, while the effect of gravity, when the machine is stationary, is to rock the gasket and box away from the sugaranold.

If the box for any reason should not tip backward away from the sugar-mold it may be easily pushed backward by the hand of the operator.

The boxes are provided with the usual opening at the top for the admission of the spouts F, which supply them, respectively, with white liquor from the central reservoir, H, which is permanently secured upon the upper end of the shaft B.

I claim as my invention in apparatus for liquoring sugar in the centrifugal machine 1. A series of sugar-molds concentrically arranged in the basket of a cei'itrifugal machine and a like series of movable liquoringboxes loosely supported in the central portion of the basket, in combination with fixed walls for guiding the movements of the boxes, respectively, in radial lines toward and from the molds, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. A liquoring-box, substantially such as described, having its lower end chamfered, and hence resting upon its front lower edge and tending by its own gravity to fall backward.

3. A series of sugar-molds concentrically arranged in the basket of a centrifugal machine, in combination with an inner circle of liquoring-boxes loosely con tainedin the basket and free to move radially, whereby such boxes are forced radially outward against the molds, respectively, by the action of the centrifugal forces generated by the rotation of the machine, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. A series of suganmolds arranged in a circle in the basket of a centrifugal machine, in combination with an inner circle of looselycontained liquoring-boxes having their lower ends outwardly and downwardly inclined, whereby during the rotation of the machine the boxes are held, under the action of centrifugal force, firmly against the molds, respectively, and when the machine is stationary tend by their own gravity to tip inward and backward away from the molds, substantially as described.

F. O. MATTHIESSEN.

Witnesses:

M. L. ADAMS, GEO. W. Mm'r'r. 

